Connectors for mounting to circuit boards or the like are provided with contact leads or terminals that engage contact pads on the surface of the circuit board. After positioning and securing the connector with respect to the circuit board, the terminals are usually soldered to the circuit board. To obtain a reliable soldered contact between the terminal leads and the circuitry of the circuit board, it is important that the terminals of the connector are coplanar and within the proximity of the solder pads on the surface of the circuit board. If the terminals are not coplanar to each other within a small range, typically about 0.10 mm, the lowest positioned terminals will sit on the top surface of the contact pad where they will be securely soldered, while the highest positioned terminals will be so far from the contact pads that they will not become securely soldered.
To prevent coplanarity problems, it has been proposed in EP 1 102 357 to have terminals pivotably floating within corresponding channels, in such a way that each terminal end pivots down under its own weight. When the connector is positioned for soldering, the terminal ends all rest on the corresponding contact pads on the circuit board, while a good contact is obtained under the weight of the pivoting terminals. The connector in EP 1 102 357 is particularly suitable when the terminal end does not require to be expandable in a resilient way, for instance to receive a pin of a mating connector.